Davey Jacobs X OC

One

One year later.

Katherine looked up from her typewriter as she heard a knock on her office door.

"Come in," she called. A girl with curly brown hair and a face full of freckles walked in.

"Hi," she said timidly, "I'm the new employee. I was told you were supposed to show me around?" Katherine smiled.

"Oh nice to meet you! I'm Katherine," she said cheerfully.

"I'm Ari."

• • • • •

Katherine had always been a sympathetic person. She felt sympathy for the newsies during their strike, and she felt sympathy for Ari when she told Katherine she had no place to stay.

Besides, ever since she moved out of her father's mansion into a small, two bedroom apartment, Katherine had missed having someone to live with. So she offered to let Ari stay with her.

Ari and Katherine had already become great friends. Close enough that Ari was willing to trust Katherine with the story of why she had to leave New Mexico.

"I had this great job in New Mexico," Ari explained, "at least for a while. A few months back I got a new boss and..." Ari started to choke up. Katherine placed a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, I'm fine. I need to talk to someone about this. Anyway, my new boss turned out to be really abusive." Katherine's jaw dropped. "It went on for a while. It wasn't until I ended up in the hospital one day that the police finally believed me. I tried to stay at my job after that, but there were just too many memories. I started to look for job offers other places, which led me to New York."

"Ari I'm so sorry," Katherine said. "Is that how you got..." she gestured to a scar that ran down Ari's left cheek. Ari sadly nodded.

"But I'm trying to put all that behind me. Right now I just need to forget everything about my past and focus on the present." Ari states. Katherine nodded in agreement.

~~~~~

Jack smiled as he finally sold his last paper. He headed down the street towards Katherine's apartment. He was going to surprise her with flowers he had bought for her earlier that day.

When he reached her apartment he knocked on the door. He rocked back and forth on his feet, waiting in anticipation for her to open the door. Finally the doorknob turned and the door swung open. Jack smiled when he saw the most beautiful girl he knew.

"Hey Kath," he greeted, a smile spreading across his face. "I gotcha somethin'." Katherine beamed as she saw the bouquet of lilies.

"Jack they're beautiful!" She exclaimed, carefully grabbing the bouquet and letting him inside.

"Not as beautiful as you," He said, leaning in and sharing a kiss with Katherine.  Katherine blushed at the compliment. "How was work?" Jack asked.

"Amazing! You know ever since the strike my boss has started treating me like a real reporter.  Today he even assigned me to mentor a new employee!" Katherine all but squealed. Jack chuckled at how cute she was.

"That's great Kath," He said. Katherine found a vase for the flowers and started to fill it with water.

"What about you? You sell all your papers today?"

"Every single one. It took a lot of work though. The writers at the world ain't nearly as talented as one particular reporter from the sun." Jack smirked. Katherine rolled her eyes.

"You say that every day when I ask."

"Well then I guess every day it's true."

"You say that every day too."

"I know." There was a moment of silence between the two before Katherine spoke again.

"Actually Jack, I wanted to tell you something," Katherine said. She must of noticed the worried look on Jack's face, because she quickly added "no it's nothing bad! I just wanted to let you know that since the girl I'm mentoring didn't have a place to stay I told her she could move in with me for a while." Jack sighed in relief.

"Don't freak me out like that,  Ace," Jack said. "Also, don't ya think it's a little soon to be movin' in with someone. Ya don't even know them! They could be a serial killer for all you know." Katherine rolled her eyes again.

"I trusted you when I first met you didn't I? Believe me, she's a good person. I can tell." Jack sighed.

"If you say so." Just then a knock was heard on the door.

"That's probably her. She was going to a coffee place to work for a while." Katherine went to open the door. Jack's jaw dropped when he saw who it was.

"Jack I'd like you to meet–"

"Ari!?" Jack said, cutting her off.

"Jack?"