|| Side-By-Side || A Sprace Love Story

Chapter 11 - Strange Comfort

Warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, abuse, among other things
Third Person POV
In Queens

Race woke up to his head pounding, and it didn't take long for him to figure out why.

In about five seconds, all of the memories from the day before flooded Race's head.

He had been kidnapped.

That explains why his head hurt that bad, they used chloroform.

Where the heck did Newsies get chloroform? Like seriously? That's a lot of effort for little old me. Should I feel concerned or proud?

His head was pounding.

This was the reason he hadn't dared to open his eyes yet, for fear that it would make the headache worse.

He could fear ropes tied to both of his wrists.

They weren't tied together, but there were ropes tied to them.

The ropes weren't too tight, but he definitely couldn't untie them, especially not with his headache.

The only thing that confused him; his hands felt free to move around.

Sure, they had ropes tied to them, but he didn't know if the other side of the ropes was tied to anything.

Confused, Race squints his eyes open, trying to look.

Through the blurriness of his vision and his pounding headache, he saw ropes tied to his hands, which he already knew, but they were connected to a (metal) pipe on the wall.

Fun.

Race was also on a bed, and completely unable to move.

He could hear roughhousing from somewhere else in the same building so he had to have been in the Queens Lodging House.

That was basically the only logical answer, but it was also the one that Race feared the most.

My brothers are crazy, and the leaders of Queens, the craziest, well, second craziest borough?

What mess did Manhattan and Brooklyn, more specifically did I, get myself into this time?

In Manhattan

"Race sacrificed himself for us." Albert states. "They knocked us out, or tried for me. While I was still trying to stay awake, I saw Bullet pour chloroform on a cloth, and cover Race's nose and mouth. He was out within a few minutes, after pleading with his brothers. I passed out as they took him away." He explains.

He and JoJo had just woken up.

Specs had treated their injuries as well.

"What are we supposed to do?" Spot questions.

He felt confused. He felt concerned and he felt conflicted like most of the Newsies, but probably more than most of them.

"There's an easy answer to that question," Davey starts, as everyone in the room turns to him. "We save him." He states.

"No duh, Dave." Ike mutters, rolling his eyes.

Davey shrugs, mumbling a 'sorry'.

Mike rubs his twin's back, trying to calm him down. "No need for the sarcasm right now, it isn't helping." He whispers.

Ike just shrugs.

"How are we supposed to help him?" Specs asks, looking around the Newsies in the room.

Nobody answers; they truly didn't know.

They hadn't dealt with this before.

"We go save him?" Mush suggests, more in a questioning tone as he didn't sound so sure.