The New Newsie at the Square

The Calm Returned- Chapter 7

(TW: None finally!)

Specs was incredibly patient with Grace as the two made it to the lodging house. Specs sat her on his bunk and went rummaging around for any sort of bandages he could find. Grace was silent other than tapping her foot. She kept both her hands on her dress, hoping the texture will bring her some form of comfort.

"I don't think we've really met before, I'm  Matt, but the Newsies all call me Specs!"

(A/N I read somewhere once that his real name is Matt so I'm using that for this story, Don't worry it won't come up too often since its basically a glorified head cannon! ~Rhyse)

She gave a small nod after awhile. She wanted to tell him her mane but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth.

"Not much of a talker hm?" Specs asked as he picked up a few bandages 

Grace could only shake her head 

"That's perfectly fine! you just talk when you're ready, I wont push you"

Grace was utterly shocked at his kindness, not expecting it after the way Oscar and Morris treated her. She gave a tiny smile.

"I's gonna start patching up a few 'a ya cuts and such, I'll be real careful though!" Specs said as he made his way to Grace once more "You's tap my arm or ma' leg or somethin' if it hurts too badly or I's making you uncomfortable, okay?" 

Grace gave him another small nod. She was relieved he gave her some warning before he started.

Specs carefully cleaned the cuts on her face and had gotten a few of them bandaged and was starting to bandage the large cut on her cheek when Grace flinched and tapped his arm, telling him to stop. 

"Ah! Sorry did that hurt..?" Specs asked as he moved his hand from her face

She shook her head and showed him her hand, it was shaking.

"Oh...Did my hand so close to your cheek make you nervous..?" Specs asked cautiously

Grace nodded, relieved he understood. 

"I can move to something else that hurts until you're okay with me bandaging that cut on your cheek...How does that sound..?"

Grace mustered a small smile with her nod. This time she managed to muster a small sentence

"M-my ankle...It...don't feel right..." She managed to muster out

Specs nodded, not making a big deal of the fact she spoke, as not to embarrass her.

"It hurt?" Specs asked, staying shockingly calm

Grace gave a nod. Specs returned it and knelt down. Grace hiked her skirt just above her ankle for him. Specs kept a careful touch as he examined it.

"this outta be a sprain if not real close ta one, I'll bandage it up for ya's so you don't do no further damage...but just be carefuls on it so it don't hurt too much" Specs suggests, earning yet another quiet nod from Grace.

Specs finished up bandaging her and eventually she became comfortable enough with specs to give a brief explanation of all that happened the day before. Specs did his best to comfort her when she got overwhelmed and panicked telling the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cora was not as calm as Specs was. Not at all. She was beyond furious. Her blood boiled.

She was going to find out one way or another who did this to Grace and make them regret it. At this point tears streamed down her cheeks as she sat in a quiet alley with Davey. She was fuming. Davey was doing his best to calm her down. 

He gently placed Cora's hand on his chest so she could feel his breath and focus on that. He would give her very light kisses on her cheek and her forehead as a way to calm her down.

"I love you..so much Cora" Davey said softly, keeping his voice calm and soothing "You're safe here..." 

He repeated that, and mainly the "I love you" part of that to her quite often as they sat together. Cora had eventually calmed down to the point she stopped crying, but she was still mad, she still wanted to teach whoever did this not to mess with her friends. She didn't care who it was... She'd make sure they never did that again.