She's the King of New York

Chapter 6 The New Plan

Katherine's eyes light up.

"Wait, I need to go talk to three people. Two who can help us now and the third can help us later, but the third is very important," She says and starts to walk away, "I'm going to talk to the first two right now." Jack chases after her. She can't just leave him yet. He calls out after her,

"Hey! Wait!" Katherine turns to look him and he continues, "You'se comin back right?" Katherine smiles at him and asks,

"Why don't you just come with me?" Jack shakes his head. As much as he wants to stay, he needs to go talk to Davy. Katherine looks at him as if reading his thoughts. Davy is someone that is going to want to hear Katherine's part in this just as much as Jack's. She just needs to talk to a couple of her newspaper friends and all she needs to do is leave a note. Her friends were best friends with each other, so she only had to leave one note. "Listen, we can talk to Davy after. Do you have some spare newspaper I could write a note on?" Jack nods and hands it to her as well as a pencil. Katherine puts the paper against the building and writes a quick note to Darcy telling him that she needs him and Bill to meet him in her father's basement that evening at a specific time and to not get caught. The two hurry down the streets until Katherine spots Darcy's home. She knocks on the door and Jack puts a protective hand on her shoulder as the door swings open revealing Darcy himself. She hands him the note, and walks away pulling Jack with her.

"What was dat all about? Was dat him?" Jack asks confused. Katherine nods knowing that the plan will work. Darcy is a good friend and will not let her down. Jack looks at her and shakes his head. "You'se is trouble, ya know dat, Ace?" He asks smiling. Katherine's eyes brighten at the new nickname.

"Nice nickname. Where did you come up with it?" Katherine asks. Jack smiles, spits into his hand and holds it out to her.

"Welcome to da Newsies, Ace. I'se came up wid your Newsie name, so you'se been inducted," Jack says still holding out his hand, "And seems fittin since ya got all da hot news on da Newsies strike." Katherine spits into her hand and they shake on it. Jack gives her hand a squeeze before they pull apart. She smiles at the fact that Jack trusts her enough to make her an honorary Newsie. Jack leans down and kisses her cheek and says "I'se likes it when you smile." Katherine blushes as they walk towards the lodging house. She is falling for Jack more than she thought she could ever fall for a man. Jack slips his hand ever so easily into hers and they walk down the street side by side. Two people, so young and yet so in love. Once they arrive, both Jack and Katherine stop at the doorway. Katherine looks up at now, one of the best friends she has ever had. He is nervous and she understands why. She squeezes his hand gently and says,

"I'm going to be here for you and the boys. No matter what happens. Remember that." In return, Jack says,

"I'll be here for you too, Ace. I ain't leavin your side. I love you, Katherine." Katherine smiles at him. She knows he has no idea how long she has waited to hear those precious words.

"I love you too, Jack. Thank you for believing in me." She says and she means it from the bottom of her heart. Jack smiles back and says,

"You believing in me has been one of da best tings dat has evah happened to me. You are one of da best tings dat has happened to me." With that, he pulls her to him, leans down, and kisses her. Just as their lips meet, the door swings open and Race walks out with Spot on his heels.

"Whoa! Look at dis! Da King of New York and Jacky Boy is having a riot out here," Race yells excitedly. Jack and Katherine just keep on kissing despite the announcement from Race. Spot peeks around his shoulders and says

"Well, it's about time Jacky Boy found himself a goil. Who knew?" Mush comes out, smiles at the sight and shouts,

"Ya did it, Plumbs!" Race yells,

"Jack's back. Plumbs got Jack ta come back! We'se gotta tell Davy. I'se will go and tell him right now," Mush says and runs off toward David's house knowing where he lived since he had walked Davy and Les home the other night. Katherine and Jack pull apart and all of the boys rush toward them. Spot and Jack shakes hands and Jack hugs his boys. Katherine looks on in admiration as she watches the boys reunite. She loves how Jack acts like he hasn't seen them in weeks when it was only a few hours earlier. Smiling to herself, she wonders if Jack would do that if she left and came back. Mush comes back and hugs Jack from behind, so Katherine knows the plan will work out perfectly. After a quick conversation with Race about where David lived, Katherine sneaks up behind Jack, kisses his cheek, and whispers in his ear,

"I'll be back. I'm going to go talk to Davy about the plan." With that, she slithers into the shadows. Jack looks concerned, but she is gone before he can say anything. Katherine doesn't stop running for a while. When she finally reaches Davy's apartment, she bangs on the door. All she says is, "Meet me in the cellar at the World. Bring the boys. Jack and I will go at around 1:00 tonight. Have the boys there by about 1:30." She turns on her heel and leaves Davy staring at her retreating form in confusion.

"Huh?" He asks, clearly confused. Katherine turns and says,

"No questions. I wrote an article calling out to the kids of New York to strike with us. We are printing it behind Pulitzer's back. Meet us there if you want to win the strike." She continues walking and leaves Davy baffled at his front door. Walking quickly, she arrives back to the Manhattan Lodging House. None of the boys are still standing on the street. She knocks on the Lodging House door and she hears someone ye, probably Kloppman, yell

"Come on in!" Katherine opens the door and sees Jack, Race, Spot and Mush talking about something. Jack walks over to her while the three look on.

"How was ya chat wid people?" he asks. She shrugs and says,

"They know. They'll do what they're supposed to when the time comes. I'll go talk to that third person in the morning." Jack smiles a goofy smile at her. She says "I think I'm going to go home."

"I'll walk ya home," He offers and she can't help but think about what will happen to her and Jack if her father catches them. She also realizes that she hasn't told Jack about what she had to do to see him. When she explains this to him, his eyes widen in worry.

"Ace, ya don't have ta sneak out just to see the boys and I. We coulda saved ya latah," He says to her, "I'se comin wid ya. Ain't no way I'se gonna let you get inta trouble on your own." Katherine sighs as he grabs her hand. This was not going to be easy. Her father probably knew that she had escaped by now and Jack could get into trouble if they were found out. She shakes her head.

"Jack, who knows what my father will do to me when I get back and if he catches you too, nothing good can come out of this. Someone is going to get hurt," She says. She would hate to see Jack get into more trouble than he is already in. He was risking a lot just by staying with the strike. She would like to get some sleep however and relax a little bit since tomorrow would be a late night. A very late night at that. She starts to walk back towards her house and Jack chases after her.

AN:/ Wow, this one was pretty short for me. Sorry about that. Anyways, I hoped you liked it! I love Jack and Katherine so much, can't you tell? And then, there's the Newsies barging on their private moment. I love making Jack's life a public ordeal to the ears of teenage boys. I also like sappy romantic moments which I guess makes up for the lack of length in this chapter. Also, I present to you, my theory of how Katherine got her nickname Ace. I know it is potentially because of the "ace up your sleeve" line, but I wanted to make my own theory. So, please tell me what you think of it! And then there's Davey. Hehehe, that's all I have to say about him. He is a little confused. I apologize for the abundance of romance lately. This story is something I wrote clearly out of Jatherine fangirling. So, some parts are very romantic, this stretch in particular. If you read my stories on a regular basis, you know that this is not typically how things roll. But, romance is fun every once in awhile. Jack also proves to be very resourceful sometimes. Anyways, sorry for that random rambling. I am very tired and listening to the Newsies soundtrack from the live performance.  I hope you enjoyed this one. Please tell me what you think, I love feedback. This one was probably not as good as the others, but it's always worth a shot, right? Anyways, new stuff for my other works should be out soon. I just need to work on it. Enjoy the reading and see you next Friday, friends!