Stage: Me - Cards: ac110807
- Chapter 27 - "We've Only Got Tonight." -
Warnings: Mentions of injuries, blood, kidnapping, attempted murder, and abuse
Third Person POV
After a few minutes, Jack picked up Stage and Charlie picked up Cards.
Stage very much did not want to let go of Cards, but complied when Jack held her hand and was half-asleep a few minutes later (though she was having trouble fully falling asleep.)
Cards did not want to be picked up at all.
"Cards, please just let him carry you." Ace pleads with her.
Cards groans weakly. "I don't want to be carried. I'm fine. I want to be walking near Stage." She responds.
"Please." Ace takes her hand. "Give up with the stubbornness for one day? Please?"
Ace almost never got this worried.
Cards sighs deeply, relaxing a bit in Charlie's arms.
One of his hands was slipped under her legs and the other was behind her back, the same way that Jack was holding Stage.
Specs was holding Stage's right hand, half to comfort her, half since he was studying her cuts and needed to keep them straight up and not hurt them.
"Can Switch die? Can Zip die? Can Wisk die?" Cards groggily sings (to the tune of 'Unemployed'). "Because I've got a knife and want to go stab, stab." She shows her knife.
Spot immediately takes the knife out of her hand.
Cards pouts.
"I second this." Stage weakly raises her hand, before putting it down as she got dizzy again.
"Wow." Hotshot starts. "You know they've been through a lot when the one who hates violence wants someone to die." He comments.
"They hurt Cards." Stage mumbles in her defense.
Jack smiles, hugging her a little tighter. "She doesn't even care about her injuries." He whispers. "She's worried about Cards."
Stage lifts her head a bit. "Where?"
Specs lays her head down again. "Cards is okay. Lay your head down." He whispers.
"They didn't hurt me much." Cards states. "Unless you count knocking me out, holding a knife to my throat, and pulling my hair." She adds.
Stage's head went up again. "What?" She asks.
Specs shoots Cards a half-hearted glare. "Not helping." He tells her.
Cards shrugs a bit, looking up at the sky.
Specs lays Stage's head down again, whispering for her to sleep.
"Actually, Cards," Red grins cheekily. "They had blades, not knives. You had a knife."
Cards rolls her eyes. "Such a huge difference." She mumbles, sarcastically.
"Actually," Hotshot jokingly pushes her hand. "Knives are a tool for cutting and blades are the sharp part of the knives." He informs her.
Cards chuckles a bit.
She noticed Ace stayed silent.
"Ace," She whispers. "I'm okay. You don't need to be worried. Stage and I will get over this." She squeezes his hand lightly. "Just joke with us."
Ace nods a bit. "Yeah," he laughs weakly. "I'm just worried. Sorry."
Spot slings his arm around Ace's shoulder. "Brooklyn Rule 33-"
"Don't apologize for being worried!" Race, Smokes, Ike, and Boots shout in unison.
"Guys!" Specs quiets them.
They smile cheekily at him.
Spot chuckles. "See. They know it and three of them are Brooklyn boyfriends, not actual Brooklynites."
Ace chuckles a bit. "I'm still learning them." He states.
Spot nods. "If you get through your whole Brooklyn Newsie life, and even just actual life, and learn all of them, I'll be thoroughly impressed." He comments.
Ace chuckles. "I'm going to try to learn them all. Anything for my leader to be thoroughly impressed." He jokes.
"There he is." Cards smiles weakly.
Red slings his arm around Ace's other shoulder, and Hotshot slings his arm around Charlie's shoulder, holding Cards' hand that Ace had let go of.
"Why is everyone holding my hand like I'm a child-" Cards starts.
"Offended." Stage chokes out.
Cards' head shot up. "Is she crying?" She questions, getting concerned quickly.
Stage clung to Jack.
"She's still a bit scared." Cloth informs Cards. "We're trying to calm her down and get her to sleep so that we don't have to treat her injuries with her awake."
DD walked with Stage, Jack, Specs, and Cloth.
Cards hadn't seen him before and she wasn't used to him being this quiet.
Stage had gotten pretty close to DD, which is why he was probably a little worried.
Stage and DD's relationship was a little more him being protective of her, giving her advice, while still being a cool, older brother like figure.
Cards and DD's relationship was more 'let's go do some fun stuff (like pranks) that may or may not get us in trouble with Spot'.
Spot sometimes joined their pranks.
Cards knew she couldn't do anything for Stage and that Cloth, Jack, DD, and Specs were handling it, but it didn't make her any less restless and worried.
"How are you doing?" Charlie whispers to his sister.
Hotshot looks at her.
Cards shrugs a bit. "I feel tired. I want to either go run around or hold Stage forever, and getting knocked out doesn't feel fun." She comments.
The two boys chuckle quietly.
"Yeah, cause on the list of 'fun things to do', getting knocked out is definitely up there." Charlie responds, obviously being sarcastic.
Cards nods, groggily.
She looks back over at Stage.
Specs held her injured hand/arm and DD held her other hand.
She looked like she was almost asleep, which was probably good in a way and also probably bad.
Cards figured that the reason Specs wasn't too worried about her sleeping was because he injuries weren't to the point where her life was threatened.
Cards only figured that if they hadn't come in at the point that they had or if the plan had backfired, things wouldn't have turned out the same.
Cards' eyebrows furrowed.
She shook her head slightly, trying to get the topic off of her mind, while also drawing Spot, Charlie, and Hotshot's attention.
Cloth walked over to her. "How are you holding up, Cards?" He asks.
"I kinda feel like passing out or running around New York City five times in a row." She states. "So, you know, pretty normal."
Cloth chuckles a bit. "Anything hurt? Feel like it's bleeding?" He questions.
"The back of my head might have a bruise, my hair hurts a bit, but other than that, not really." She answers. "I can still feel the knife to my throat though." She whispers.
Cloth's eyes soften. "I'm sorry. It'll be like that for a bit while you get over it."
Cards nods.
Cloth walks off.
"What's on your mind?" Spot asks Cards, seeing that something was troubling her.
"What if you hadn't gotten us out of there?" She blurts out. "What if your plan failed or you were just a little bit later? Would Stage be okay?" She questions.
Charlie holds her a bit tighter. "We weren't going to let them hurt you. We're sorry we weren't there earlier."
Cards shrugs, looking up at the sky. "I need Stage." She whispers, trying to fight tears from filling her eyes.
"We're almost home." Charlie whispers. "You can hold her while we treat your injuries."
Cards nods, stealing another look at her best friend.
Time skip
Stage laid half-on, half-next to Cards on a bunk in the bottom bunk of the bunk that they usually shared when they stayed in Manhattan.
Stage's eyes were red, puffy, and glossed over.
Cards' were somewhere close to that, but her having just cried wasn't as obvious.
There was ice on the back of Cards' head.
Stage had bandages on her arms, cheek, and forehead, along with ice on her knee.
There were scattered Newsies around them, but they didn't care. The Newsies were all silent.
"You know," Stage speaks up. "We always seem to end our adventures like this, Cardsie."
Cards nods. "Yeah. We need to have less dangerous adventures though." She comments.
Stage laughs a bit. "I'm tired of getting hurt."
Cards chuckles a bit. "Me too, and I'm tired of watching you get hurt."
Stage holds her pinky out on her not-hurt hand. "No more injuries?" She asks.
Cards hooks her pinky with Stage's. "As long as you don't smack yourself with a stick."
Stage rubs her head a bit, cringing. "Yeah, that hurts." Cards laughs a bit. "I promise I'll try not to."
They pull their pinkys apart.
"You need a partner, a partner in crime." Cards sings softly.
Stage smiles. "Two extra fists in a fight." She continues.
"No ma'am." Cards scolds her, jokingly. "We talked about that lyric."
Stage rolls her eyes, smiling. "Someone to travel the world." She sings. (A/N, the line isn't great lol.)
"Why should the road be long and lonely?"
"Why not team up?"
"We've only got tonight." They finish together.
They smile.
"That was adorable!" DD exclaims, clapping his hands.
Stage and Cards laugh a bit together, resting their foreheads against each other's.
1512 Words
At the end of the book, there will be bonus chapters that will include Modern and Canon AU/Era chapters.