I'm there, right by your side

31 - Happy New Year

Katherine sat, resting her head on Jack's shoulder as her family surrounded them in the living room. They had eaten a beautiful dinner at it was now 11:30. Lucille laid down with her head in Katherine's lap asleep. She'd asked to be woken up in time for midnight though. Katherine found it so difficult not to tell Jack about the baby. She just wanted to rest her hands on her belly and rub it but knew she couldn't. "I've had a wonderful year with you Jack. It's been one of the best years of my life. I have a loving family, so many friends that sometimes I lose track, I have an incredible job, and most importantly I have you. My loving boyfriend." She smiled at him.

"I'm the luckiest." He said back. "To have you and so many people who care about us and more importantly who support us. It's an amazing feeling, one I never thought I'd ever feel." He had his hand in his pocket and looked up at Mr Pulitzer nervously. Katherine didn't pay much attention to this as she was watching her sister. After more conversation between everyone Katherine woke Lucille up.

"Lu. It's 10 minutes until midnight."

"Yay. It's my first time being allowed to be up for the actual new year change." She smiled, sitting up.

"Katherine." Jack said suddenly with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Yes J?" She said turning to face him.

"Okay." He took a deep breath. "Since the moment I first saw you walking down the street I knew there was something different about you compared to any other girl I'd met before. You were intelligent, that came off straight away, beside the obvious beauty which is why I first approached you. I never believed in love at first sight until that evening. I saw you at Miss Medda's and knew you were the girl I wanted to be with. You were smart, independent, beautiful, kind, caring, stubborn, but that's good, and a loving girl. You stood up for us Newsies and you supported us during those few days. We won because of you." He looked at her father. "Sorry Mr Pulitzer, but you have to admit your circulation has grown since the newsies have been able to sell more papes without risk." He then looked back at Katherine. "I love you. More than anything. I knew that from the start. But it became stronger as we began dating. You changed me in a positive way and you've brought out the absolute best in me. After one year of us being together I knew I definitely couldn't spend a day away from you. So I'm going to ask this." He stood up and then got down on one knee, pulling out a ring box with a sparkling ring inside. "Miss Katherine Pulitzer." He took another deep breath. "Will you marry me."

"Oh My Gosh Jack. YES! Of course I'll marry you." She stood up and jumped into his arms as he stood up. He spun her around and placed her down on the ground before taking her hand and sliding the ring onto her finger. "It fits perfectly." She whispered. She put her arms around him again and kissed him as his hands held her waist and head. "I love you so much." She whispered once they pulled away.

"I love you even more Ace." He smiled. She looked down at the ring.

"It's so beautiful Jack. Thank you so much." She didn't care where the ring came from. It may have been his mother, some other relatives, he may have gone and brought one. She didn't care if he spent money on it or not. It was absolutely perfect. "I'm still in shock. I'm assuming given my father is sat their not freaking out you asked him first."

"Yeah. On the anniversary of the strike. I asked him way back in August. But I wanted to find the perfect moment."

"And you did J. I couldn't have imagined it any other way. It was perfect, and you're perfect."

"2 minutes, let's all head out the the fire escapes." Edith said as that was their tradition was to look over the New York skyline as the church bells chimed.

"We will go up to the next level, there isn't space for us all here." Katherine said taking Jack up one flight of stairs to the fire escape platform outside her old bedroom window. "We're about to have our first New Year's Eve as fiancé's." She smiled as she put her hands on the railing and looked out at the city streets filled with lights as everyone was still awake.

"It looks beautiful. But not as beautiful as you do ace," He said wrapping his arms around her. Katherine looked down at her stomach as the first midnight chime went. She placed his hands over her belly and held them there with hers.

"You feel that Jack. Tonight is also our first New Years as a family of three." She said barely above a whisper because of her parents below them.

"No! Wait, Kath, are you pregnant?" He said softly too with a huge smile on his face, which she couldn't even see. She turned around 90 degrees to half face him, and replaced his hands back on her belly.

"Yeah I am. From when we did it on my birthday. That's why I've been so sick recently. Meeting up with Clara wasn't planned. I just made her come to the doctor with me to take a blood test. Which came back saying I was pregnant. I've never been so happy. I really want to be a mom. And I feel like it's the right time for us." She said tears of joy and fear falling from her eyes. He wiped them away as he kissed her forehead.

"Yeah. We aren't kids anymore ourselves, we may still be young, but we're not kids. You're 18, I'm 19, and we're happy, we're engaged, we live together, we are financially stable, with two well paying jobs, we have the perfect life. And this just made it more perfect."

"Yeah. I don't want to tell anyone else just yet though. I want to keep it a secret for a little longer."

"Of course," Jack said kissing her cheek. "I love you both so much. This was the perfect start to 1901. Now let's go say happy new year to your family."

"I love you too Jack. And I'm so happy that you're happy about the baby. I was a little nervous to tell you."

"There's no need Ace. I've always wanted to be a father so I could be a better father than my own." Katherine nodded and kissed him passionately. It was the perfect New Year's Eve for them both.