Newsies Imagines

Leaving Town (Jack Kelly)

You can't sit straight. You can't sit at all for longer than the span of a few seconds before your feet start tapping and your hands start rapping at your sides, desperate for something to help you focus on anything other than what you've just seen. If you don't find any task to do, no matter how small, you'll start thinking, and if you start thinking, you'll remember the strike from earlier today.

That you can't do, because you won't just be remembering the way your friends all stood together and chanted at Pulitzer to reset the prices of papes or face the ungodly wrath of the newsies, you'll be remembering the way the bulls showed up and tore everyone you knew to ribbons. You'd been so happy, so proud, and then you'd watched Romeo get punched straight in the face, and you'd seen Crutchie get dragged away to the Refuge. Now you can't think about it at all.

You've been able to stay busy for the last few hours, bandaging up your friends. You've wrapped cloth around the arms and legs and heads of your fellow newsies, watching mutely as the white bandages quickly soaked through with red. No matter; you changed the bandages just as quickly, wrapping even tighter and more expertly until the blood finally stopped seeping through. You helped set bones and fix sprains, everything you could do to help. Now you're out of patients, and you don't know what to do.

You're sitting by yourself now, telling yourself that you're watching over the motley crew of newsies. Your eyes flicker over the rows of boys, taking in those who'll need medicine you don't have and those that will be able to help if you need it. You make silent notes on which boys need to rest and which have too much energy, which should be escorted away to their bunks and which ones should go take a lap around the streets to burn off excess adrenaline before they head indoors again.

Eventually, Davey comes over to you, putting a hand gently on your shoulder to get your attention, not that it would ever be so deeply lost to need the gesture. "You need some rest, Y/N. Go back upstairs, get some sleep. We'll hold down the fort until later." You scoff, although the sound from your throat is jittery and in need of reassurance. "It's the middle of the afternoon, Davey. I slept just fine last night."

Davey gives you a look, eyebrows raised. "I just watched you hyperactively sort out every newsie on this side of the Brooklyn Bridge to make sure they all had medical care. I think you accomplished what a dozen doctors couldn't. Besides, it's less about sleep and more about relaxation. Y/N, you've worn yourself ragged. You have to let your guard down at some point. You're with friends, we'll be safe. Let yourself rest."

You sigh, rubbing a hand over your face. "I am letting myself rest, I'm sitting down." Davey rolls his eyes. "Y/N, I say this with all of the respect I have, but we both know that's a lie. You haven't let yourself rest since the second those cops started pouring out of the alleyways to soak us. We're going to be alright, you have to let yourself rest at some point. Really, truly rest." His voice drops. "None of us know when Jack is coming back. Don't run yourself into the ground waiting for him."

You wince. That's it, the blow you've been doing your best to avoid. "He might come back soon," you say lamely, "You don't know that." Davey's lips stiffen in sympathy. "I do, Y/N. I saw his face as he took off. None of us know where he is, and we've been looking for hours. He's not going to come for a little longer, and that means you need to get some downtime to yourself. We're going to be alright. No one else is going to attack us, and that means you need to go get some rest. I'll hold down the fort if it makes you feel better."

You can feel yourself wavering. "You're sure? You'll get me if Jack comes?" You can sense the regret in Davey's eyes, as if he can't stand to lie to you but doesn't want to crush the last bit of hope from you. "Sure I will. I'll send the fastest squad of boys to track you down." You laugh weakly. "Sounds like a plan. I'm heading out." Davey waves. "I'll get you as soon as I see him." You both know it's a lie- Davey's right, Jack won't be coming back for a while. At least this falsehood sounds good to your bleeding ears.