Leaving You Behind

By: Courtney M.

Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, Jack, Spot etc, etc. Disney does and
their lucky, blah, blah, blah. I am not making any money from this and
nothing like this would actually happen, it is entirely FICTION. I know
this. I respect this. And everyone who reads this should as well. Thank
You.

Distribution: FanFiction.net anyone who wants, ask and I'll gladly give!!!

Warnings: This is a slash story (I think you all understand what that means) so if you don't like, don't read. I'm saving you the time now. . .
thank you again.

Reviews: Are greatly appreciated.

Jack's POV

I wasn't looking forward to this. Really, I wasn't. Sure, I've wanted to get away from New York for a long time, but I wasn't looking forward to telling everyone. Especially all my boys. That's probably why I held it off for such a long time, procrastinated telling them until I figured I could say everything I wanted to say without breaking down. I'd been through so much them, that it almost made it impossible for me to tell them. But I owed them at least that much if I was leaving them.

I decided to do it at one of those Friday night get togethers Race had planned with poker and beer and the whole deal. I know, I know, good way to ruin a festive mood but if I didn't do it then, I'd never tell them. And I could just imagine the badness that would come from that scenario. So drunk, gambling Newsies was the only way to go.

The "party" was one of our more popular ones, apparently Race had invited a bunch of the Brooklyn Newsies to join us (a fact he forgot to tell me until one actually showed up), and although I hadn't expected breaking the news of my leaving to their fearless leader as well, but what could I do? Kick them out? Yeah, that would go over even better then my not telling anyone I was leaving. So near the end of the night I shouted over the talking that I had an announcement. (Original huh?)

"Make it short Jack, I'se beatin Skitts horribly and I'se kinda need 'da money," Race said, puffing away on one of his prized cigars. I smiled and nodded at him.

"Short, okay, short. . . I gotta say I didn't expect half of New York to be 'ere when I told you guys 'dis, what can I do? For Race's sake this will be put in simple terms. I'm leaving. To Santa Fe in four days."

The activity stopped all at once and suddenly silence consumed the whole house. Every eye was on me, and my Newsies had a look of complete horror and confusion etched onto their features as they gazed up at me.

"Leavin. . . how long you been planning 'dis?" Blink asked from the corner of the room breaking the long uncomfortable silence. I swallowed the lump in my throat before answering him.

"A little over a week and a half," I mumbled, which was followed with a few glares and so sharp intakes of breath.

"And youse just now decidin to tell us?" Mush asked harshly which was different then he normally was. His tone was enough to make me feel the guilt that had been bubbling at the surface since I started planning the trip. I lowered my eyes in shame, unable to bring myself to look into the faces of the group of Newsies that had looked up to me for so long.

When I did look up again I saw, not anger, but hurt and a good amount of it. I didn't figure I needed to say anything else, and I was pretty sure no one wanted to even look at my face, let alone talk to me, for the rest of the night so, slowly, I made my way out of the lodging house and left them there to think about what I had said. After the Brooklyn guys left I'd probably be lynched by cruel words and gutful glares so I took the opportunity to do to the docks and look out on the black water. And get some needed ( I would say deserved but I don't think that after what I'd done I didn't deserve anything but a few broken bones) fresh air.

I didn't hear him approach until he was less then two feet away from me. Not that I knew who he was, my back was facing him and I didn't even want to find out so I continued to stare at the water and ignore the person behind me.

" 'Dat was one hell of an announcement Jacky-boy," A cold voice finally said walking right up next to me.

"Spot," I greeted not saying anything more. I didn't have anything too say to him, he wasn't anyone I was concerned about. So I didn't even look at him. He either didn't care or notice because he sat down beside me.

"So, youse leavin. . ." He trailed off and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

" 'Dat's what I said wasn't?" I snapped at him. I was not in the mood for Spot Conlon tonight.

He had the decency to look slightly surprised at my outburst, but his expression quickly changed back to impassive. He turned back to the water and we were silent for a few more seconds.

"Ya know their going to miss you," He said slowly, casually. This time it was I that looked surprised.

"I suppose. They'll get over it though," I said shrugging non-commitedly. Spot took his eyes off the water to glare at me openly.

"You're their leader Jack," He stated as if I didn't already know this. His superior tone was getting old since I had no patience tonight. So I returned his glare with one of my own. And stared right into his icy blue eyes.

"They'll get another one," I answered him in the calmest voice I had at the moment. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"They don't want another leader Jack. . . what's yer problem anyway? Why do you want to leave 'dis place so bad? Not good enough for you Cowboy?" He sneered angrily. My face contorted in confusion, I'm sure of it. What the hell was his problem anyway? Why did he care? Why was he pleading my Newsies case for them? It didn't add up to me, we were never friends so I figured he'd be happy I was long gone.

"What's YER problem Spot? You got a problem with me leaving? Am I your only competition or somethin'?" I countered, mostly just to get a rise out of him, but also trying to understand what was going on inside the Brooklyn man's head.

He opened his mouth to answer, but closed it just as quickly. His face flushed slightly, but his frown and glare never faltered. He just stared, hard, at me for a few more seconds before turning back to gaze out at the water. I saw his jaw clench and unclench angrily, but he said nothing. And I let the subject drop, and lost myself in my own thoughts for the time being.