Fly Away, Birdie

Chapter Twenty-Eight

3rd Person POV: 

Finch limped along, walking was much easier with Spot's help but the trip was still slow. Spot glanced over at her frequently, trying not to show his growing concern the more she winced. The farther they went, the harder she was finding it to keep going. But she had to, she reminded herself. Her friends were counting on her and she wanted to believe Jack was telling the truth. But what if it was a trap? Jack wouldn't do that, would he? 

"You alright, birdie?" he asked her, interrupting her thoughts. She managed a small smile and nodded. 

"I'm fine, Spotty," she said, trying to sound carefree. He wasn't convinced. 

"Didn't I tell ya not to call me that?" he rolled his eyes at her but tightened his grip on her arm as she leaned on him more. She was growing tired, but he knew she was too stubborn to admit it. 

"Probably," she shrugged a bit, "but Ise don't care. It suits youse." 

Spot pretend to be annoyed but he couldn't focus on making his scowl stay when she smiled at him. He felt the edges of his lips begin to curve up into a smile and she mocked a gasp. 

"Is that a smile I see, Spotty?" she grinned and he had to concentrate hard to stop himself from grinning with her. 

"'Course not, birdie. Youse seein' things," he scoffed but she knew what she saw. She said nothing, however, and kept walking. Spot walked with her, realizing this was the first time they'd really been alone since they were kids. He felt like he should apologize, he remembered her saying how much it'd hurt with her father not being around, and then he'd left her too. He hadn't been a good friend, and now might be his only chance to make up for it. 

Taking a deep breath, he tried to form the words but it was like they were stuck in his throat. He hated it, the way sometimes he could barely form a single word around her. He was the feared King of Brooklyn! And yet....to her, he was just Spotty. She didn't seem to care about his title, she wasn't the least bit intimidated or afraid of him, in fact, she seemed to like his company. Walking and talking with her, he felt like he was that scrawny bright blue-eyed kid again. He found himself almost wishing he could go back to that time, before snapping himself out of it. Wishes were for children, and he stopped being a child long ago. 

"Birdie, I'm sorry." He began and she looked at him curiously with those deep brown eyes that he had always found hard to say no to an eternity ago. 

"For what?" she asked, a bit confused but she knew. 

"For all those years ago," he sighed. "For just leavin' like that, I didn't even say goodbye. Ise was a terrible friend....and Ise hurt youse which Ise never wanted-or want to do." Finch looked at her feet as he continued, "I'm sorry, I can't give youse an excuse other than Ise thought you and yer mom would be better off without me. She looked so tired and I didn't wanna- " 

"Spot," she interrupted quietly. "She was sick. She died....a few months after you left." 

"Finch," now he felt worse. She'd had no one. He remembered the scars he'd seen that day after he'd pushed her in the river. What had she gone through? She'd been in the refuge for who knows how long. If he had stayed with her, he wondered what would've happened. Would he have been able to prevent anything? "I'm so sorry." 

She cleared her throat but he noticed the tears beginning to form in her eyes, "Um, can wese talk about somethin' else?" 

"Yeah," he spoke quickly. "'course." But he couldn't think of anything else to say, 'sorry' didn't seem like enough.  He looked over at her once more only to see her start to fall forward, eyes almost closed. Catching her as best he could, he carefully laid her on the ground. 

"Finch!" panicking, he tried to keep her awake. "Ellie, c'mon-" 

She didn't answer and he gently grabbed her wrist to check her pulse. It was there but her breathing was slow. His eyes darted around the street, desperately looking for anyone who would help but there was no one. Help. He needed to find help. Looking at her once more, he took her hand and linked their pinkies, remembering her words: 

"That's a pinky promise, can't ever be broken. Ise promise that wese always gonna be friends." 

"Always?" 

"Always."  

Spot brushed Finch's hair out of her face before whispering, "I'll come back for you, Ellie. I promise..." Leaving his cane with her in case she woke up, he sprinted away hoping he would find someone before it was too late. 

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A/N: hello there! yes, it's been quite a while- but I didn't forget about this! ok, I admit I forgot about this for a while- but the internal guilt from not updating was always there-

I'm not sure when the next update will be, to be honest. I'm not going to promise a specific time in case I end up breaking that promise. I'm not going to pressure myself but I'm working on this in my freetime. I think we're nearing the end of the book? There are still a lot of pieces of this puzzle that need to be in place. We'll see where it goes together.

Thank you for your patience though! (And for not correcting my many spelling mistakes, I've been rereading this and there's a lot lol) I get the reader frustration when you just want to know what's going to happen so sorry about the cliffhanger-

See you in the next chapter!

~Scribbles 

P.S. how are you all doing?